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Player Profiles: Understanding Immersion and Player Experience in Digital Games

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Player Profiles: Understanding Immersion and Player Experience in Digital Games PLAYER PROFILES: UNDERSTANDING IMMERSION AND PLAYER EXPERIENCE IN DIGITAL GAMES by C JORDAN LYNN (Under the direction of Alison Alexander) ABSTRACT Videogames are an experiential medium; in order to gauge how much a consumer will enjoy a game, he must play it for himself. Unlike a lawnmower or digital clock, the consumer cannot adequately discern the level of utility he will enjoy from his new videogame purchase simply by reading the features and benefits listed on the package label. For the average consumer, $59.99 is a rather large gamble to take on a purchase that may hold little to no utility. Immersion—an experiential phenomenon experienced commonly in the best videogames—is the goal for many players and thus for designers, yet we know very little about the nature of the immersive experience and we have yet to identify the elements that will reliably produce such an experience. This thesis examines the previously conducted research about immersion in videogames, and through analysis of previous works and interviews with dedicated gamers develops a theory of “player preference profiles” to explain how players relate to their favorite games. INDEX WORDS: Videogames, involvement, engagement, immersion, ludology, gamer, player preference profile PLAYER PROFILES: UNDERSTANDING IMMERSION AND PLAYER EXPERIENCE IN DIGITAL GAMES by C JORDAN LYNN B.A., The University of Georgia, 2007 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2009 © 2009 C Jordan Lynn All Rights Reserved PLAYER PROFILES: UNDERSTANDING IMMERSION AND PLAYER EXPERIENCE IN DIGITAL GAMES by JORDAN LYNN Major Professor: Alison Alexander Committee: Casey O’Donnell Barry Hollander Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2009 iv DEDICATION Without the assistance of several individuals, this paper would never have become a reality, and many thanks are owed. To Dr. Casey O’Donnell, thank you for assigning an entire academic journal as a reading assignment. I cursed you for it at the time, but without that assignment this thesis would never have come to exist. To Dr. Alison Alexander, who looked very confused when an enthusiastic grad student bounced into her office talking about videogames, but told him to pursue it regardless. Thank you for your support. To Debbie Sickles, without whose constant cheer (and occasional cupcakes) I couldn’t have made it. To Matt and Play ‘N Trade of Athens, who bent over backwards to help me get this thesis written. You guys are awesome. To Leslie, proofreader, scribe, and muse. Despite being on the other side of the planet, you were still an invaluable part of this process. Thank you. To Sam. Yes, we can finally play Crazy Eights now. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of all the researchers who have endeavored to expand our understanding of videogames over the last three decades. Without your contributions, this research would never have become more than a good idea. Special acknowledgement to Dr. Gordon Calleja, whose work provided the foundation for this thesis. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgments …………………………………………………………………...v 1 Introduction and Literature Review…………..………………………………....1 Introduction to Immersion …………………….…………………………..….1 Flow …………………….…………………….……………………………....3 GameFlow …………………….…………………….…………………….….4 Presence …………………….…………………….……………………...…..5 Player Experience …………………….…………………….………….…….7 Concrete Measures …………………….…………………….………………9 Gameplay Experience.…………………….…………………….………..…10 Breaking Immersion …………………….…………………….…………….11 Conclusion …………………….…………………….……………………....12 2 Calleja and the DGEM ………………………………….………………….……14 Digital Game Experience Model …………………….……………………...16 Macro-Involvement …………………….…………………….……………..17 Micro-Involvement …………………….…………………….……………...25 Incorporation …………………….…………………….…………………...32 Conclusion …………………….…………………….……………………...33 3 Research Questions and Methods ………………...……………….……….…..35 Exploratory Interviews …………………….…………………….…………37 In-Depth Interviews …………………….…………………….…………….39 vii Issues and Observations …………………….……………………………...41 4 Exploratory Interviews .……………………...………….……………………...42 Affective Involvement.. …………………….…………………….………….42 Spatial Involvement…………………….…………………….…………….47 Narrative Involvement …………………….…………………….………….49 Tactical Involvement …………………….…………………….……...……51 Performative Involvement …………………….……………………………55 Shared Involvement…. …………………….…………………….………....60 Discussion …………………….…………………….…………………...…62 5 In-Depth Interviews …………………….………………………………....……63 Affective Involvement …………………….…………………….………….63 Spatial Involvement …………………….…………………….…………….68 Narrative Involvement …………………….…………………….………….73 Tactical Involvement …………………….…………………….…………...78 Performative Involvement …………………….…………………….……...84 Shared Involvement …………………….…………………………………..87 Observations Outside of the Model …………………….…………………..91 6 Conclusions, Limitations, Future Research …………………………….……..96 Digital Game Experience Model Support …………………….……………96 Applications …………………….…………………….…………………….98 Limitations …………………….…………………….……………………...99 Future Research …………………….…………………….………………100 Works Cited …………………….…………………….…………………….……102 1 Chapter 1 Introduction and Literature Review In this first chapter, I will describe the existing literature in the field that has explored the concept of immersion, and made initial attempts to operationalize it. These theoretical frameworks are useful for understanding how Calleja's model fits into the broader literature on immersion. These frameworks, in conversation with Calleja's research, are foundational to the development of player preference profiles. Introduction to Immersion Mentioning the term Immersion to someone well-versed in videogames, whether within the industry or an avid consumer, instantly communicates a complicated psychological state of mind in one succinct term. Gamers and designers alike can readily identify the state of being immersed, but only by describing their personal engagement with the medium at the moment of immersion can they explain it to you. Though this term is highly significant in games studies, there has been a struggle to define it; one of the best attempts at a definition comes from Janet Murray: A stirring narrative in any medium can be experienced as a virtual reality because our brains are programmed to tune into stories with an intensity that can obliterate the world around us…. The experience of being transported to an elaborately simulated place is pleasurable in itself, regardless of the fantasy content. We refer to this experience as immersion. Immersion is a metaphorical term derived from the physical experience of being submerged in water. We seek the same feeling from a psychologically immersive experience that we do from a plunge in the ocean or swimming pool: the sensation of being surrounded by a completely other reality, as different as water is from air, that takes over all of our attention, our whole perceptual apparatus…in a participatory medium, immersion implies 2 learning to swim, to do the things that the new environment makes possible…the enjoyment of immersion as a participatory activity (1997, pp.98-99). Aside from this descriptive explanation, no single author or measure adequately establishes a defined construct of what immersion is, if there are different levels or types of immersion, and how to quantify those phenomena if there are. Several authors note this dilution of the meaning of the term immersion, including one researcher who “suggest[s] that immersion has become an excessively vague, all-inclusive concept” (McMahan, 2003, p.67), and researchers whose expressed intent is to disambiguate the meaning of immersion (Jennett et al, 2008). Some authors link the structure of narrative schema to the development of immersion (Douglas & Hargadon, 2000), but fail to develop their models from the experiences of the player. Other works reference immersion, presence, engagement, or involvement, but make no clear attempt to define them (Johnson & Wiles, 2003; Jones, 1998; Lombard & Ditton, 1997; Radford, 2000; Sweetser & Johnson, 2004; Yee, 2006) or define them in ways that do not translate to other works in the field (Douglas & Hargadon, 2004). Despite these difficulties, progress is being made in exploring the notion of immersion, or as it is sometimes called, engagement. Here, I will review the existing literature on videogames and immersion, highlighting those authors who make strides to define this difficult concept and thus highlight the increasing sense of disorientation that is born from the lack of a unified theory of game engagement. Flow One of the most telling themes in the videogames and immersion literature is the lack of commonality in citations. When sifting through the literature on immersion, there are an 3 abundance of ideas from perspectives of designers, researchers, and players, but very little uniformity of theory. As a matter of fact, only one source is commonly cited throughout nearly all of the literature: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and his concept of flow. According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow is a state of complete absorption in a task, brought about by the confluence of several simultaneous factors—when each of these pieces falls precisely into place, a person can abandon the sense of self, and become wholly engaged in the current activity (1997). There are several important defining aspects of these “flow activities.”
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